The present invention generally relates to a system for automatically storing in a thermo-hygrostat such as an incubator, trays used for cell culture in the field of biotechnology and more particularly, to improvements to the incubator.
A thermo-hygrostat is proposed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication (unexamined) No. 182300/1986. In this known thermo-hygrostat, a driving mechanism including a motor is provided. Generally, an interior of a thermo-hygrostat is maintained at a high humidity of 90% or more so as to enable cell culture and thus, is a severe environment for the driving mechanism including the motor. Therefore, the motor is required to be accommodated in a casing sealed by a gasket, etc., so that a capacity for accommodating the trays in the thermo-hygrostat is reduced by a space occupied by the casing, etc., thereby resulting in decrease of the number of the trays to be accommodated in the thermo-hygrostat.
Furthermore, due to the above described constructions in which the casing is accommodated in the thermo-hygrostat and the motor, etc. are stored in the casing, the known thermo-hygrostat has such a drawback that if a failure of the motor of the driving mechanism occurs, it is difficult to repair the motor.
Moreover, the known thermo-hygrostat is provided with a door for manually taking the trays out of and into a thermo-hygrostat housing and performing maintenance operation, etc. of the thermo-hygrostat. Hence, the known thermo-hygrostat has been disadvantageous in that in the case where the trays are taken into or out of the thermo-hygrostat housing or maintenance operation of the thermo-hygrostat is performed by opening the door, atmosphere in the thermo-hygrostat housing changes considerably through communication of atmosphere in the thermo-hygrostat housing with ambient air.